On December 2nd, Burkina Faso will hold parliamentary elections for the fifth time since 1978. The parliamentary elections are required to vote in deputies to an increased 127-member parliament. (There are currently 111). The process operates through a closed-list proportional representation system and those elected will serve the population of 17,275,115 (July 2012) for a five-year term. The Independent National Electoral Commission recently conducted the draw for the positioning of the 74 political parties taking part in elections on a single ballot.

Burkina Faso holds legislative and presidential elections every five years, with the presidential election falling two years before voters elect the National Assembly. The country is divided up into one nationwide, multi-member, constituency with a district magnitude of fifteen and thirteen multi-member constituencies with district magnitudes ranging from two to ten.

In the 2007 legislative elections, the ruling Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP) won 73 out of 111 seats (59%), with the Alliance for Democracy and Federation-African Democratic Rally (ADF-RDC), taking 14 seats (11%). The remaining 11 parties split the rest of the 30% of the vote in the legislative polls.